When one thinks of Alvar Aalto images of laminated wood
and plywood furniture instantly spring to mind. Alvar experimented with
a variety of construction materials including tubular steel but he made
the most significant technical innovations using laminated materials such
as birch and plywood.

Originally Alvar studied to become an architect in Helsinki but eventually
found himself working as an exhibition designer and travelled extensively
in central Europe, Italy and Scandinavia.

In 1924 he married the designer, Aino Marsio and together and for five
years they experimented with the bending of wood. This research
led to Alvar's revolutionary designs of the 1930's. Alvar began bonding
veneers together and moulding plywood. These experiments led to
one of the most innovative chairs at the time which he named Model
No.41.

This image above shows this particular chair.

The chair is made from laminated and solid birch frame. Birch
is a very flexible and springy material. The seat is made from bent plywood
which has been heavily lacquered. The scrolls at the back of the chair
have been bent into such a shape by removing several layers of the plywood
veneer.

Alvar also designed and made Model No.31 at around the same period. This
was a cantilevered chair. Both were very contemporary at the time. It
was the first chair to use laminated wood in a cantilever structure.

The designs began a new trend in the use of laminated woods and plywood.
The furniture proved to be very successful with the public and as a result
Alvar and his wife set up a company selling the furniture. The company
was named Artek and was set up in 1935.

Alvar believed that his most important contribution to furniture design
was his solving of an age old problem, which was how to connect vertical
and horizontal pieces of material. In order to do this a framework usually
has to be built, joints cut or standard components such as screws, bolts
or nails used.

Alvar's bentwood solutions allowed legs to be joined directly to the
underside of a seat or a table without the need for a framework or any
additional support.

This technique was used to construct such beautiful pieces as his series
of L-Leg stools (1932-1933). Y-Leg
stools (1946-1947) and Fan-leg stools (1954).
The L-Leg stool (Model No.60) demonstrates Alvar's interest in basic functional
forms. It is made from laminated birch.

Alvar's furniture has an organic appearance. It does not look like other
furniture of the same period, which appeared to be angular, sharp and
made of polished tubular steel. This furniture looked mass-produced whereas
Alvar's chairs look like they have been individually made by skilled craftsmen
using natural materials.

For example if you take a look at the vase underneath named the Savoy
vase of 1937, originally named the 'Eskimoerindens skinnbuxa', which
means the Eskimo woman's leather trousers. It is said to be inspired by
the fjord shorelines of Alvar's native Finland.

Alvar strongly believed that design should be both natural and organic.
He rejected man-made materials such as tubular steel in furniture.

He felt that these materials were alien and were not materials that made
us feel a part of nature.

Alvar's furniture was well received both in Britain and America during
the 1930's and 1940's. His philosophy of design was influenced by nature
and organic materials.

After the Second World War Alvar's philosophy influenced such designers
as Charles and RayEames.

Alvar's influences were very different than the Modern Movement at
the time. He rejected mass- production, the machine finish and the whole
efficient elimination of decorative shape and pattern that was so important
to the Modern Movement. This Movement was keen to eliminate any excess
time, waste of labour or materials. Their main concern was the pure function
of a product.
Alvar felt that this ideology was unsatisfactory to the human condition.
He hoped that his work would capture something of the spirit of nature.

Alvar is quoted as saying '' The best standardization committee in the
world is nature herself, but in nature standardization occurs mainly in
connection with the smallest possible unit cells. The result is millions
of flexible combinations in which one never encounters the stereotyped''.
This quotation was cited in Andrei Gozak, Alvar Aalto versus the Modern
Movement, Helsinki 1981.

The image below shows Model No.98. A tea trolley for Artek. Consider
the smooth curved bent plywood and the lack of any foreign standard components
such as screws or knockdown joints.
The whole piece is very simplistic, even the handle is made from a single
hardwood dowel rod.
It would have been so simple to attach standardized wheels or caster to
the trolley but the integrate of the piece has remained intact by the
addition of plywood disc wheels

Organic design must be treated as a holistic approach. For example the
whole interior of a room must be carefully considered and everything in
that room must compliment one another. The complete effect is thought
to be more important than the sum of its individual parts.

Crucial to organic design was the consideration of how individual
elements such as pieces of furniture and ornaments connect both visually
and functionally with the rest of the room and even building as a whole.
This could be achieved through the correct choice of colours, materials
and shapes.

Alvar believed that wood was ''the form-inspiring, deeply human materials''.
He rejected such materials as tubular steel, which were quite modern at
the time. Alvar's furniture was so popular in America that he virtually
changed the course of design towards organic Modernism.